but underlying the problem for mitt romney is that republican voter identification is dropping, so the polls do have to reflect a weighting that says that there are fewer republicans than there are democrats and there are more independents. it's because there's less identification with the republican party in the country. so if the polls are trending away from mitt romney, it's two things. number one, his poor performance, but also the fact that the republican brand is actually -- >> despite the fact that they're controlling for the decline as you put it. >> and it's controlled for. these polls all weight themselves according to where people say that they are, whether you're a democrat, republican, or independent and then they ask the question. there's not some inherent bias. >> dr. peterson, we, the media, have been blamed repeatedly. now the polls are being blamed. who else is to be blamed? >> eventually they will blame the voters for not agreeing with them. at the end of the day, this reflects the fact that our country is no longer moving to the right in some ways. there's some ways